Re: switching remaining platforms to modular X by default

[Marc Espie <espie%nerim.net@localhost>]

On Sun, Jun 02, 2013 at 12:38:36PM +0100, Matthias Scheler wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 02, 2013 at 01:19:58PM +0200, Marc Espie wrote:
> > Comment from outside.
> > 
> > The real problem seems to be not having a recent fontconfig as "native" 
> > X11 implementation.
> > 
> > I just checked, Matthieu did commit fontconfig 2.10.91 to OpenBSD last
> > march, so I don't think having a recent fontconfig in netbsd "native"
> > would be an issue ?
> 
> No, it wouldn't. But it seems that we, the NetBSD project, don't do
> a good job of keeping the X11 libraries in the base system up to date
> and an even worse job of back porting that to older supported releases.

To the best of my knowledge, the font libraries are very special,
and could be considered "not really" a part of normal X.

(we toyed with the idea of putting freetype and fontconfig in a separate
set, as there are installations where they make sense, for instance to
fully use libgd, even though you're not interested in the rest of Xorg).

I happen to have a full dependency tree of xenocara on OpenBSD (our
X support, probably more or less the same set of libraries and apps
netbsd has).

fontconfig is used by cwm, xfd, xterm, xtssscale (for apps) and by
Xft (only library).

Xft is used by xdm, xfd, xlogo, xterm, xtsscale.

Doesn't look like a very central library to having working X11 to me.
(okay, xterm is fairly central).

I surmise the platforms where you need "native" X to work probably don't
even have a fontconfig available, as they probably predate client-side
fonts by years...

It seems to me that this "native" or "modular" issue is not an all-or-nothing
proposition, fontconfig has some specific role to play.